Rules for Input to format Commands

When you use the format utility, you need to provide various kinds
of information. This section describes the rules for this information. For information on
using format's help facility when you specify data, see Getting Help on the format Utility.

Specifying Numbers to format Commands

Several places in the format utility require number as input. You must either
specify the appropriate data or select a number from a list of choices.
In either case, the help facility causes format to display the upper and
lower limits of the number expected. Simply enter the appropriate number. The number
is assumed to be in decimal format unless a base is explicitly specified
as part of the number (for example, 0x for hexadecimal).

The following are examples of integer input:

Enter number of passes [2]: 34
Enter number of passes [34] Oxf

Specifying format Command Names

Command names are needed as input whenever the format utility displays a menu prompt.
You can abbreviate the command names, as long as what you type is
sufficient to uniquely identify the command desired.

For example, use p to access the partition menu from the format menu.
Then, type p to display the current slice table.

Specifying Disk Names to format Commands

At certain points in the format utility, you must name something. In these
cases, you are free to specify any string you want for the name.
If the name has white space in it, the entire name must be
enclosed in double quotation marks ("). Otherwise, only the first word of the
name is used.

For example, if you want to identify a specific partition table for a
disk, you can use the name subcommand that is available from the partition
menu: